ABSTRACTS, FALL 2000 (Volume 28, no. 2)
- The Revised Institution: The Community College Mission at the End of the Twentieth Century
- Levin (pp. 1-25)
- Seven urban and rural community colleges in the United States and Canada were examined using a qualitative multiple-case-study design to define changes in the colleges' institutional missions during the 1990s. Group site visits, personal interviews with administrators and faculty, and policy documents provided the data, which were analyzed using an analytical framework drawn from globalization literature. Two iterations of pattern coding and content analysis identified specific themes and patterns in documents, interviews, and observations. Observational data also provided support for emerging patterns. Although most of the interviewees perceived little change in their institutions' missions during the 1990s, the data collected indicated alterations to mission based changes at each college and suggests that a new globablly oriented vocationalism dominated the community college mission at the end of the twentieth century.
- Community Colleges under the Microscope: An Analysis of Performance Predictors for Native and Transfer Students
- Carlan and Byxbe (pp. 27-42)
- Stratified random samples of native and transfer students at a university were compared based on data extracted from student transcripts for 1989, 1990, and 1991. Transfers' first-semester GPAs at the university were less than their community college cumulative GPAs, but natives maintained similar upper and lower division GPAs. Regression analysis revealed, however, that upper division GPAs varied little between native and transfer students when influences of related variables were held constant. Separate regression analyses of transfer and native variables detected that lower division GPA and major were significant predictors of upper division GPA for both groups, but more so for transfers than for natives, with business and science majors earning lower GPAs than others. Although race was not a significant predictor for transfers, it was the most significant predictor for native students: White natives earned higher upper division GPAs than minority natives. The authors conclude that community colleges need to improve the rigor of their business and science programs, but they provide nurturing environments for minority students.
- Critical Academic Skills for Kansas Community College Graduates
- Larson and Wissman (pp. 43-56)
- A three-round Delphi survey was used to gain consensus among 23 community college administrators and faculty representing 19 community colleges in Kansas. First-round participants defined 199 critical academic skills for community college associate's degree holders. Second- and third-round participants rated the skill statements based on a nine-point Likert scale and achieved consensus on seven skills that included key critical competencies defined by Gardner (1994). The authors suggest ways to use the Delphi technique to define outcomes for assessing institutional effectiveness.
- ERIC Review: Community College Teaching--Toward Collegiality and Community
- Outcalt (pp. 57-70)
- This review of the literature focuses on community college faculty and their teaching practices. After summarizing faculty demographic changes since the 1970s, the author describes both obstacles to effective teaching and the innovations that faculty use to overcome them. Although isolation, growing reliance on part-timers, pressure to produce research, underprepared students, and inadequate resources for development continue to challenge community college faculty, they have responded by using innovative methods such as learning communities, collaborative learning, and self-directed learning. The review concludes with descriptions of institution-wide efforts that have transformed teaching and produced innovative curricula.
Published by the Department of Adult & Higher Education College of Education - NC State University Box 7801, Raleigh, NC 27695